1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector mounted on a printed wiring board, more particularly to a connector for a printed wiring board mounted thereon, and provided contact terminals and hoods for covering the contact portions of the contact terminals installed in a housing.
2. Prior Art
A connector for a printed wiring board, whereby the connector provided with housing attached to contact terminals and hoods covering the contact portions of the contact terminals is mounted on the printed wiring board and placed in a solder bath, and the terminal portions of the contact terminals are connected by solder to conductive patterns of the wiring board through re-flow treatment, has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-109444 before this application was filed.
The connector for a printed wiring board 40 described in the abovementioned laid-open patent publication is provided with a main body housing 41 made of insulating material (referred to as “Insulator” in the said publication) 42 and a metal hood (referred to as “Shield” in the same publication) 43 are integrally joined, a plurality of contacts 50 held by the insulator 42 in a linear arrangement, a compensation cover 49 that holds lead wires 51 of the contacts 50 likewise in a linear arrangement, and the assembly of these parts is attached to a printed wiring board P, as shown in FIG. 7.
The insulator 42 out of these constituent parts has a main body portion 44, and through holes into which the contacts 50 are installed are formed at the central portion and sidewall portions 46a, 46b which are formed on the right and left sides of the main body portion 44, respectively, while protrusions 47a, 47b for guiding insertion of the compensation cover 49 are also formed on the inner sides of both of the sidewall portions 46a, 46b. Further, positioning bosses (not shown) are formed on the bottom surface of the insulator 42.
Furthermore, the shield 43 consists of a hood portion 44a extending from the main body portion 44 to the insulator 42 in a joined state and right and left flange portions 44b, 44b where mounting screws are respectively formed on either side, and the hood portion 44a covers the contact portions of the contact terminals.
The connector is designed to be assembled and installed on the wiring board in the manner laid out in the following procedure.
Firstly, the plurality of contacts 50 is connected to the through holes of the insulator 42 installed with the contacts and which is integrally joined to the shield 43. Thereafter, the compensation cover 49 is attached to the insulator 42 to hold the lead wires 51 of the contacts 50 at predetermined positions in linear form.
The assembled connector 40 is mounted on the printed wiring board P, and the rear end of each lead wire 51 is thereby joined to the conductive patterns on the surface of the printed wiring board. At this point, the positioning bosses of the insulator 42 are inserted into the positioning holes of the printed wiring board P and the attaching position of the connector is thereby established. Thereafter, the connector is placed in a solder bath (not shown) and the terminal portions of the contact terminals are connected by solder to the conductive patterns of the board surface through the use of re-flow treatment.
In the connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-109444 publication, the insulator to which the contacts are installed and the shield covering the contacts are integrally joined, and the connector thereby formed is installed on the printed wiring board, with the terminal portions of the contacts being connected by solder to the conductive patterns on the board surface through the use of re-flow treatment.
Although the insulator and the shield of the connector are integrally joined, they are separately made of insulating material and metallic material, respectively, and comprise different members. As such, the following problems may likely occur in the assembly and repair of the connector, as well as during attachment to the printed wiring board, and the like.
(1) The connector cannot be placed in a solder bath when attached to the printed wiring board.
A solder bath is generally designed for connectors of a predetermined size. However, when the insulator and the shield are integrally joined, the outer shape of the connector is enlarged so it cannot fit the solder bath. Consequently, a large connector cannot be placed in such a generally designed solder bath. Although this problem may be addressed by installing a larger solder bath for larger connectors, this necessarily leads to higher facility costs, while making installation difficult. Additionally, using a large solder bath involves complicated management.
(2) Conducting repair work on the connector is difficult.
Connectors sometimes fail during use. Since the connector of the abovementioned prior art is such that the shield covering the contacts is integrally joined to the insulator, it is impossible to monitor the state of the contacts from the outside and determine the source of failure, and there are even cases where the failure cannot be properly addressed.